New Delhi, June 12: With China reacting strongly to senior IAF officers' justification of increase in military strength in Arunachal Pradesh to counter Beijing, Defence Minister A K Antony is understood to have warned IAF top brass against talking about the neighbours or India's military capability. Defence Ministry sources said here today that Antony's rap came in the wake of Chinese Deputy Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Ma Xiaotian snubbing an Indian delegation comprising Defence Secretary Vijay Singh and Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta at the Shangri La dialogue in Singapore in May by suggesting that Indian commanders were sabre-rattling on China. China, sources said, had also conveyed its anguish over Indian military commanders equating it with the troubled South Asian nations such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. New IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik had promptly conveyed the Defence Minister's diktat to his commanders and asked them not to speak out of turn on the neighbours or about the military capabilities of India. The Defence Minister is also believed to have pulled up South Western Air Commander Air Marshal K D Singh for his reported commented on a "short intense war" with Pakistan. Former IAF chief Fali Homi Major had at his pre-retirement press conference talked about India coming close to striking Pakistan in the wake of the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks.
Bureau Report
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